Scudder Will Close Boca Investment Center

The Scudder retail investment center at 4400 N. Federal Highway in Boca Raton will close Sept. 24 as part of a move by the mutual fund firm to emphasize sales of its no-load funds over the Internet.

Altogether, parent company Scudder-Kemper Investments is closing all five Scudder retail offices nationwide and two of four centers where representatives answer telephone calls. Between 100 and 120 of the firm's 5,000 employees, including three in the Boca Raton office, are being laid off.

Mark Casady, mutual fund director for Scudder-Kemper, said about a third of Scudder investors' inquiries already come via the Scudder's Web site, www.scudder.com, and that "direct physical distribution" of no-load funds no longer has "much of a future."

The other investor centers being closed are in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Chicago, and the telephone centers in Boston and Salem, N.H.